The American journal of hospice & palliative care
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · May 2010
A survey of family members' satisfaction with the services provided by hospice palliative care volunteers.
A total of 22 family members, whose deceased loved ones had used the services of a hospice palliative care volunteer, responded to a brief survey designed to assess the importance of the different kinds of support offered to them (family members) by the volunteer, their impressions of the volunteers' personal qualities/characteristics, their general experiences with the volunteer, and their overall satisfaction with the volunteer services. The kind of support that received the highest importance rating from family members was the opportunity to take a much-needed break from the demands of caring for their loved one, closely followed by emotional support, the volunteer spending time with them, and the volunteer providing them with information. ⋯ Overall, family members were very satisfied with the volunteer support they received. Some limitations of the study are discussed.
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Nausea and vomiting are relatively common in advanced cancer and is dreaded more than pain by patients. The history, pattern of nausea and vomiting, associated symptoms, and physical examination provides clues as to etiology and may guide therapy. Continuous severe nausea unrelieved by vomiting is usually caused by medications or metabolic abnormalities, while nausea relieved by vomiting or induced by eating is usually due to gastroparesis, gastric outlet obstruction, or small bowel obstruction. ⋯ Corticosteroids have not been effective in randomized trials except in the case of bowel obstruction. Treatment of nausea unresponsive to first-line medications involves rotation to medications which bind to multiple receptors (broad-spectrum antiemetics), the addition of another antiemetic to a narrow-spectrum antiemetic (a serotonin receptor antagonist such as tropisetron to a phenothiazine), rotation to a different class of antiemetic (tropisetron for a phenothiazine), or in-class drug rotation. Venting gastrostomy, octreotide, and corticosteroids will reduce nausea and vomiting associated with malignant bowel obstruction.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · May 2010
Continuous deep sedation until death: palliation or physician-assisted death?
Published literature has not discerned end-of-life palliative versus life-shortening effects of pharmacologically maintaining continuous deep sedation until death (i.e., dying in deep sleep) compared with common sedation practices relieving distress in the final conscious phase of dying. Continuous deep sedation predictably suppresses brainstem vital centers and shortens life. ⋯ Continuous deep sedation contravenes the double-effect principle because: (1) it induces permanent coma (intent of action) for the contingency relief of suffering and for social isolation (desired outcomes) and (2) because of its predictable and proportional life-shortening effect. Continuous deep sedation should be distinguished from common sedation practices for palliation and characterized instead as physician-assisted death.
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In immunosuppressed patients (ISP) with acute respiratory failure (ARF), invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) is associated with high mortality rate. Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) is a type of mechanical ventilation that does not require an artificial airway. It has seen increasing use in critically ill patients to avoid endotracheal intubation. ⋯ Immunosuppressive treatments have showed an increase not only in the survival but also in the susceptibility to infection. Several authors have underlined the worst prognosis for neutropenic patients with ARF requiring endotracheal intubation and IMV. The NIV seems to be an interesting alternative in ISP because of the lower risk of complications; it prevents endotracheal intubation and its associated complications with survival benefits in this population.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Mar 2010
The stress process in palliative cancer care: a qualitative study on informal caregiving and its implication for the delivery of care.
The primary objective of this study was to examine how the comprehensive nature of the Stress Process Model could elucidate on the stressors associated with caring for a palliative cancer patient. ⋯ It was concluded that an appropriately financed, integrated system of care that followed a person-centered philosophy of care would best meet the needs of the patient and his or her family.